Hello! In the midst of my blog break, I wanted to post a few photos from my amazing week in Chartres, France, before Paris in July (#2024parisinjuly) passes us by.
We explored the beautiful gothic cathedral from top to bottom, taking all available tours including of the roof and the crypt, spent hours gazing at the windows, sculpture, and architecture, saw it lighted up at night, bought books to help us puzzle out the mysterious iconography, attended High Mass, and walked the ancient labyrinth three times.
I was most intrigued by the North Portal, an incredibly detailed assemblage of sculptures of Old Testament and allegorical figures, from the creation of the world onward, leading to the birth of Mary, the Annunciation and Nativity. Sadly, the transept on this side was completely closed off, so we’ll have to come back in a couple of years when the whole cathedral will hopefully be open again.
Though most of my time was spent at the cathedral, I also saw another quite different construction at the Maison Picassiette, a house covered with mosaic by one man over the course of 33 years. It’s definitely worth a visit too if you’re in the area.
My stomach behaved well enough to let me enjoy some delicious French food. And I even saw the Olympic torch being passed — not something I would have gone out of my way to see, but it happened right outside our Airbnb apartment!
If you have not been to Chartres, I hope this might inspire you to make the pilgrimage. It’s worth going for more than just a day trip.
Lory, what amazing pictures, it was like being on that vacation with you. What a grand time you are having! Thank you for sharing, I love seeing your posts and knowing you are well and having a good time with your loved ones.
Thank you Silvia, I’m so happy to be able to share.
I love seeing all the photos! Glad you are having a wonderful time.
It was wonderful!
Staying a while at Chartres sounds wonderful, and your photos are delightful. I’ve only been there for a day or part of a day trip. I think the food there has always had a fantastic reputation.
I enjoyed meeting you at the Zoom conversation.
best, mae at maefood.blogspot.com
It was great to meet you too! Hope we can do it again some time.
Thank you for sharing your trip to Chartres, Lory! I will take my time looking at all those fascinating photos!
There was so much to see, this is only a fraction of it.
We went to Chartres for the day, and while we were on the train my daughter asked how we would know where to go when we got to the station. Uh, we’ll look up we told her. It was a wonderful day, not least because of the lunch we enjoyed outside at a little cafe in the shadow of the cathedral. I don’t know what I ate because we couldn’t translate the French word, but it was the most delicious little bird I’ve ever tasted. And we also had some of the best gazpacho ever (as good as any we tried in Spain).
I’m glad you had a wonderful day there too (and memorable food).
Great pictures! I would love to visit Chartres (and in fact, when my mother told me our somewhat recent trip to France should include a trip to Vezelay, I was surprised she chose that instead of Chartres). When I worked in publishing, we published several books on labyrinth – the famous one in Chartres and an imitation in San Francisco (but I think people like to visit both).
I would have been excited to see the Olympic torch – I am a big Olympics groupie.
Hope your summer is going well.
Constance
I am very glad I had the chance to see the torch being passed – probably the only time I’ll ever get to do that!